In front of him Elvis was Harry Belafonte. The American singer, actor and (mostly) activist, who passed away yesterday at the age of 96, was the first solo artist to reach such heights of popularity before the king of rock and roll.

He even broke the 1 million entry barrier before anyone else with “Calypso” 1956.his third consecutive solo album.

As the name suggests, Belafonte was, in fact, the one who introduced Americans to the specific musical idiom calypso, rooted in the sounds of the Caribbean from where it originated.

“The Banana Boat Song”, “Jump in line” And “Farewell to Jamaica”characteristic snippets of these first albums entered millions of American homes, while Belafonte’s success was just as great in live performances.

At a time when music and film were largely intertwined, Harry Belafonte soon crossed the border of the big screen.

In fact, he was one of the first black actors in Island in the Sun (1957), in which he stars alongside James Mason, Joan Fontaine and Joan Collins.

His great film success continued until the late 1950s when he played two more leading roles (Carmen Jones, Bright Road) with Dorothy Dandridge, but he turned down a third film because he considered it “racially derogatory”. “.

By the early turbulent 1960s, Belafonte was less interested in film and even music. His main priority now was the social struggle, he was an early supporter and at the same time a good friend. Martin Luther Kingwhose goals he also helped financially.

His place in the films as the main character was taken by his old friend Sidney Poitier, but Belafonte was not interested in this kind of Hollywood stereotypes.

When he returned to the big screen as a star and producer it was with Angel Levine in the 1970s where he hired 15 black and Hispanic apprentices to teach them the art of filmmaking.

In the 1980s he helped organize a cultural boycott in South Africa, playing a key role in both the famous Live Aid concert and the stellar recording “We are the world”with the goal in both cases of fighting hunger in Africa.

All this time and until relatively recently, Harry Belafonte continued to sing, release records – including in collaboration with Nana Muschouri – and act in films. The most recent was Spike Lee’s Black Klansman in 2018.